Book Review: The Great Zoo of China

I may have had some very bad, very scary days at the zoo before... but I've never had any like Dr. Cassandra Jane "CJ" Cameron.  That being said, neither has anyone else, because she's not real.  She's the protagonist of Matthew Reilly's 2014 sci-fi/thriller/adventure novel, The Great Zoo of China.  The plot is easy enough to sum up - take Jurassic Park, but instead of dinosaurs, substitute dragons.  Then, instead of an eccentric billionaire (lovable in the movies, sinister in the books), put it in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party.  It goes about as well as you would expect it to.

CJ Cameron is one of a select group of westerners who the Chinese have invited on a tour to unveil their masterpiece - 40 years in the making - to the rest of the world.  A herpetologist specializing in crocodiles (and with the scars to prove it), she is given a sneak-peek of the dragon facilities before they open up to the public, just like Alan Grant and friends in the Crichton novels.  Just like the Crichton novels, the dragons (which are themselves presented as a strain of dinosaurs which cheated extinction) prove to be a heck of a lot smarter and harder to control than their caretakers anticipated. 

As with Jurassic Park and its sequels, I find the pre-chaos-rampage parts of the book to be the most interesting.  It's fun to read about how the zoo worked (was supposed to work, at any rate) - where the dragons came from, what they ate, how they were housed and cared for.  It's this part of the book that really lets Reilly show some imagination and innovation, and his descriptions of the tour of the zoo are enjoyable and fun.  After the dragons get loose (and let's be honest, this isn't a spoiler - why else would you write this book if not to turn the dragons loose?), the story becomes predictable and cliche.  Lots of running, lots of screaming, lots of gory deaths, with the reader being able to predict well in advance who is going to live and die,.

It's a fun concept, and will probably be optioned as a movie at some point (assuming theaters ever open up again to the extent that Hollywood thinks movies are worth making).  It's just a poorly written and over the top book with nonstop action scenes which make you want to shake your head.  I'm sorry, I kept thinking, all of you are dead by this point.  Stop trying to convince me otherwise.  I'm still also trying to decide how I feel about the author's depiction of China and the Chinese.  Parts struck me as a little... problematic (especially in light of the anti-Chinese sentiment which has been brewing since COVID-19 made the scene earlier this year).

That being said, if you're up for a monster book with a zoo twist and you aren't inclined to take it too seriously, this can provide some diversion.  It is a lighter, much less technical book than Jurassic Park, which sometimes I have a hard time mustering the energy to get through.  Still, there's suspension of disbelief, and then there's The Great Zoo of China.

The Great Zoo of China at Amazon.com